


Sokka Loses A Leg

by nyanbacon



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Amputee, Angst, Found Family, Ghost Pains, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Some Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Limbs, Other, Prosthetics, Sokka the Martyr, Sort Of, Spiritbending, Trauma, i dont know if this is how spiritbending works, phantom pains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon
Summary: In an attempt to save a baby, Sokka ends up getting his leg bitten off by an unidentified creature.The experience is not enjoyable.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	1. Missing

Without a second thought, Sokka dove into the water after the dropped child. 

The water was much, much colder than he expected from the Earth Kingdom. They must have been more south than he thought. He couldn’t focus on that, though. He could see the baby’s white blanket drifting through the water, just out of his reach, and every other thought was pushed from his mind as he focused on it.

After years in the Southern Water Tribe, he had gotten good at swimming in heavy clothing. He kicked his legs and swam towards the falling object. His heart thudded in his ears, and he wanted desperately to take a breath, the shock of the cold water still making him feel numb, but he knew full well he couldn’t. He couldn’t drown, not here, not trying to save a defenseless child.

He managed to wrap his cold arms around the child and pull it to himself. It was unconscious (or dead, he couldn’t tell), but he felt relief just clutching it. Holding it close to his chest with one arm, he swam up towards the surface as fast as he could. His lungs were starting to burn, but he grounded himself in the feeling of the soft, wet blanket that was wrapped around the child in his arm. 

Without warning, something grabbed his leg and he let out a yelp, bubbles floating to the surface of the water. It stung, just enough for the pain to be felt above the numbness caused by the cold water. He looked down and two yellow eyes stared up at him from the murky water. He looked back to the lit surface. It was three, maybe four more feet. He was  _ so close _ . 

He unwrapped the water sodden blanket from around the child to keep it from weighing it down and, using both arms, pushed it up to the surface. A few agonizing moments later, he saw hands reach down and grab it from the water. 

He could only feel a moment of relief before the pain in his leg grew more intense, and he was pulled deeper into the water. He needed to take a breath. He didn’t have much longer without air, regardless of how well he could swim. He looked down and reached down to try and wrestle his leg from the jaws of whatever was holding him.

Before he could get his hands on it, there was a snap that echoed through his whole body, followed by searing pain. He shrieked, the noise filling the water around him. The liquid clouded with dark red before his vision blacked out. 

When he came to, he was shivering. Air rushed past him, drying his wet hair to his forehead. He opened his eyes, blinking out the last of the water that had clouded his vision when he blacked out. He tilted his head just enough to look out at the night sky that rushed past them as they flew.

Zuko’s warm arms were wrapped around him, holding him in a blanket that still wasn’t thick enough to keep the cold from penetrating to his damp clothes. A dull ache radiated from just below his right knee, muffled by the feeling of cold water moving around it.

He moved to look at the area, but Zuko’s hands caught his face and instead tilted Sokka’s gaze up to him. “Focus on me,” Zuko murmured.

Sokka slowly let his eyes drift closed again. His throat felt raw like he’d been throwing up for the past hour, and he was unwilling to speak, but he had to know…

“The child?” He rasped out. Behind his closed eyes he could see nothing but the hands grabbing frantically at the baby as it floated back to the surface. Had it lived?

“It’s alive,” Toph said from nearby. “You saved it.”

Every taut muscle in Sokka’s body relaxed. Without keeping himself stiff, the pain from his leg pulsed through his body and he slowly pressed his eyes into one of Zuko’s hands.

“... ‘s it gone?” He mumbled. Though it sounded like a question, he already knew the answer.

“... yeah,” Zuko finally said, his words nearly swept away with the rushing wind.

He moved his leg- what was left of it- experimentally, earning a hiss of, “stay still,” from Katara. 

Zuko tightened his hold on Sokka, who hadn’t realized he was shaking again until the firm hold made him still a bit. He was so cold, and tired, and sore, and he just wanted to be asleep, in bed.

His leg was still sore when he next awoke. After prying his eyes open, he propped himself up onto his elbows and glanced around the room. It was empty of people, but a lot of medical and… mechanical supplies were scattered around the floor.

He slowly pulled the blanket off of himself and swung his legs off the bed. He set his feet on the floor and stared at the mismatched appearance.

At first, the right one didn’t seem to show much skill in terms of machinery, but an experimental flex informed him that, even if he couldn’t necessarily feel it, it functioned exactly as it should have. 

Regardless, it was still a bit difficult to get to his feet. It was jarring to stand on carpet and only feel it under one foot, and standing up gave him a horrible sense of vertigo that it took a handful of minutes to let pass.

His mind was whirring with questions as he managed to limp his way over to the door. The part of his leg that was still intact was sore when it leaned against the metal machinery of the prosthetic and he preferred leaning against the wall to putting all his weight on the fake leg.

He was startled to see Katara on her way in when he opened the door. She yelped and dropped the tray of towels and bandages she was carrying, reflexively lifting water out of the pitcher she’d been carrying and pointing it at him threateningly. Her eyes immediately widened and she dropped the water to the ground in favor of yelling, “Sokka!” and throwing her arms around his neck. He stumbled back and had to cling to her to keep from toppling over. 

“H-hey Katara.” He sounded like he hadn’t had water in a week, which may have entirely been possible, judging by how he felt. “You’re happy to see me.”

“You’ve been sick!” She cried, pulling away to stare up at him. “And you didn’t wake up during the entire procedure!”

He glanced down at his leg. “Yeah, uh… certainly didn’t expect to wake up to this.”

“How does it feel?” She held onto his arms to aid in keeping him standing as she followed his gaze down to it.

“It.... hurts, a bit.” He flexed it. “The, uh… wound doesn’t react well to me putting all my weight onto it and having it touch metal.”

She nodded seriously. “We wanted to make sure it all would work before we did anything permanent. Aang wasn’t sure if his spiritbending would work with the metal.”

“Of co-wait,  _ spiritbending _ ?”

Katara nodded seriously. “He was able to manipulate it so your body would see it as an extension of yourself. He just didn’t want to experiment too much without you being there to tell him how it was and wasn’t doing.” She grinned suddenly. “It was  _ really _ impressive.”

He stared. “... y-yeah, I’m gonna have to thank him for that.” He shifted and leaned a hand on her shoulder. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh, they’re at breakfast. Come on.” She hooked an arm around his waist and walked with him patiently down the hallway as he hop-walked down the hall.

The doors were open and voices wandered into the hall from the dining room. The usual troop, as well as some faces Sokka didn’t recognize, were sitting around the table, chatting and laughing.

“He’s awake!” Katara called as the two appeared in the doors, and instantly Sokka was knocked to the floor as a flurry of orange and yellow tackled him from the air.

“Sokka!” Aang cried joyfully, wrapping his arms around Sokka’s neck. “You’re okay!!!”

“Aw, let up Twinkletoes.” Toph practically kicked Aang’s side. “You can’t have him all to yourself.”

“You really should be more careful,” Zuko warned from a distance. “You might hurt him again.”

“Right! Sorry!” Aang dragged Sokka back to his good foot, and he rested his other tentatively on the ground. Aang watched. “How’s the prosthetic?”

“I wasn’t even expecting to be able to walk around when I woke up,” Sokka said, grinning. “It’s super cool.”

Aang beamed. Sokka wrapped an arm around Toph’s shoulders as she held onto him on his injured side, standing strong enough to keep him upright as the strangers from the table approached him. In the woman’s arms was the baby from the lake. He stared at it, before looking up at her smiling face.

“We can’t thank you enough for saving our child,” she said, voice heavy with emotion.

“And we are so, so sorry about the loss of your leg,” the man following her said, hanging his head.

Sokka blinked. “Hey, it’s no biggie. I was just doing what any other person would’ve done.”

The two bowed. The baby laughed at the movement. “We still are very sorry.”

“Please, Mr. and Mrs. Laoh.” Zuko stepped forward, setting a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “If you would like to put together reparations, it can be discussed at a later date. Right now, I would like to give my friend a chance to eat.”

They both smiled at Sokka, nodded, and returned to the table. Katara and Toph walked on either side of Sokka as he moved over to the table and helped himself to some breakfast. 


	2. Phantom Pains Alone

After a few weeks of trial and error, Aang was finally able to manipulate his spiritbending in a way that both he and Sokka were pleased with. Despite the metallic appendage, Sokka was now able to feel the faux muscles move and flex, and he could walk around and feel the wood floors under both of his feet, instead of just under one. It was a relief, albeit a little jarring, since he’d spent weeks getting used to only being able to feel one foot and now he was able to feel with both again.

He expected things to be fine. Sure, there were still some things he had to get used to. The new appendage, while almost perfect, still wasn’t able to feel pain the same way his real leg did, so it was easy to cause damage to it and not know (on the plus side, it meant Sokka could modify it as he wanted and not feel like someone was twisting his leg off).

And sure, things were fine.

But then they weren’t and it was kind of scary.

It had happened a few times, the feeling of numbness in his missing leg. Zuko had said that he got it with his scar too. Phantom sensations, where it felt like there was something there, trying to be felt but unreachable by blood vessels. For Zuko, it was a little different. The pains had faded over the years as the skin scarred and he was able to reattain some amount of feeling.

For Sokka, it was more like he had a third leg trying to steal the currents from his nerves.

He was able to get used to it. It happened on and off, and not very often. Pins and needles, usually, and extreme temperatures other times. But it was short-lived, and after sitting in a chair gritting his teeth for a few minutes, he was able to push past the pain and continue on with his life.

The worst of it was in the middle of the night when he was alone, and he wasn’t able to find anyone to help him.

He woke up to nothing, at first, because that’s what happened when something was going to go wrong in the next few minutes. He woke up, and buried his face in the pillow, hoping that he could just go back to sleep and ignore what would inevitably happen.

And then pain shot like an electric strike up his leg all the way into his head and it made him snap up into a sitting position, gasping for air. Sweat broke out across his skin as another lightning strike of pain coursed through his body.

It felt like he was losing his leg all over again.

He gripped his thigh, doubling over so his nose almost touched his knee. He trembled, pain shooting up in smaller, less painful, but more frequent jolts. It hurt, it hurt  _ so bad _ , it hurt so bad he felt like he might vomit on himself from the pain.

He let out a low groan of pain and laid down on his side, digging his nails into his thigh. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he hiccuped, trying desperately to suck air into his lungs and struggling just to feel anything other than pain.

And then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped, and he was left curled on his bed in a fetal position.

He didn’t fall asleep again. He was afraid to. He was afraid of the pain coming back and jerking him awake again, so he just didn’t sleep. When he went to get ready for the day, his leg ached a bit, like his stub was tired of being walked on and grated against the metal of his prosthetic (again, another slight imperfection Aang was never able to quite fix), but nothing like the pain that had kept him up that night.

He went to eat breakfast with everyone and told no one about the phantom pains.


	3. Phantom Pains feat. Zuko

The next time the phantom pains happened, Sokka was a little less fortunate on the ‘dealing with it himself’ front. The jarring pain had only happened that one time, and never while he was awake, so after long enough, he’d stopped worrying about it happening again.

Zuko sometimes had trouble sleeping if he was by himself. It was something that had come about gradually since living in the Fire Nation palace again. He wandered the halls most nights, just until he was tired enough to catch a few hours of restful sleep. Sokka had caught him once, and sort of forced Zuko to admit his fear of sleeping alone. At Zuko’s request, Sokka kept the secret to himself but remembered it for when Zuko came searching for someone he could stay with until he fell asleep. Usually, it was either Iroh or Sokka.

Typically, Sokka was just fine sharing a bed with Zuko. Sokka was a messy sleeper, but Zuko never seemed to mind, and he stayed asleep through it all. Sokka was very good at sleeping through the night as well, regardless of how much he moved in his sleep.

Except when jarring pain jerked him out of his sleep.

He had just barely been awake, starting to sink back into the recesses of his mind, before flaring pain shot from his leg all the way up through his body and made even his fingertips sore. A whine slipped past his lips and he fumbled to clutch the blankets he was laying on in shaking hands. When the pain came again it was more intense, and also slower, so he could feel it inch his way up his body and flood every muscle with pain. 

He didn’t realize he was crying softly until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He gasped and twisted, looking up at Zuko through his blurry gaze.

“Sokka?” He was hoarse, still groggy from sleep. “What’s wrong?”

“It-” He let out a wheeze when his leg pulsed. “It’s nothing. G-go back to sleep.”

His whole body was shaking and even Zuko’s steady hand on his shoulder couldn’t keep him still. Everything _hurt_ and he couldn’t find anything to distract himself from the pain so every moment he was sinking deeper and deeper into misery.

Zuko’s gaze flitted down to where Sokka’s leg was twitching, then back to his face. “How much does it hurt?”

Sokka growled past his gritted teeth. “A fucking _lot_ ,” was all he really managed.

Zuko moved down to the end of the bed and rested his warm palms against Sokka’s thigh. Sokka sucked in a breath, about to protest the _rather forward touching_ , but Zuko’s fingers kneaded into the tense muscles of his leg, and suddenly the tension left Sokka’s shoulders.

Zuko’s skin was so hot it burned, but it kept the pain in his leg and it was no longer keeping Sokka immobilized. Sokka laid on his side, staring at the wall, as Zuko rubbed his leg until the pain finally dwindled down to a sore feeling in his real metal foot.

“That better?” Zuko asked quietly, and Sokka nodded weakly. He didn’t say it, but he felt horribly embarrassed by the fact that he was supposed to be here helping Zuko, but ended up waking him up over some stupid ghost pains.

Zuko laid down beside him and wrapped one arm around Sokka’s waist. He used the other to wipe at the sweat that had built up on the back of Sokka’s neck.

“How often does that happen?” He asked, voice soft in Sokka’s ear.

Sokka turned his head so he could press the side of his face into the pillow. “That’s only the second time.” He was quiet as Zuko considered the information. “It was worse that time though.”

“Hmm.” Zuko hummed and hugged Sokka’s waist. “Was anyone able to help yo-”

“No.” Sokka cut him off rather harshly. “I… no, I dealt with it myself the first time.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” Zuko propped himself up on an elbow and moved his other arm to comb through Sokka’s hair.

“I was fine by morning,” he protested weakly. “Tired, I guess.”

“I see.”

Sokka closed his eyes, focusing silently on the way Zuko’s fingers brushed lightly over his skin. “You should go back to sleep.”

“So should you.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Right.” Zuko clearly didn’t believe him, but he laid back down and draped one arm over Sokka’s side. “I’ll go to sleep once you do.”

Sokka sighed exasperatedly, knowing this was a fight he could not win. Now that he had physical contact to focus on though (namely the way Zuko seemed to like to rest his hand on Sokka’s hip), it was a lot easier to distract himself from the dull ache of his leg. He didn’t know which of them fell asleep first, but Zuko was asleep when Sokka woke up late the next morning. He didn’t feel like waking Zuko up, so he laid there and mulled over his thoughts while Zuko’s breath puffed softly against the back of his neck. 


End file.
